


Eyes, Nose, Lips

by akirerae (rerae)



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Character, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Platonic Face Touching, Tickle Fights, Unreliable Narrator, how is face touching not a suggested tag guys come on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 08:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13231653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rerae/pseuds/akirerae
Summary: "I want to see you."A light puff of air washes over his face and Sorey can't quite stop the corners of his lips from twitching in response."Sorey, I hate to break it to you, but you can't really see anything right now."





	Eyes, Nose, Lips

**Author's Note:**

> Not a new years fic, but rather one to commemorate it. I just wanted a fic where Sorey touches Mikleo's face all tender-like but then this word vomit happened haha.
> 
> Title taken from Taeyang's song, "Eyes, Nose, Lips," but definitely not as angsty.

There is nothing wrong with being blind.

In fact, Sorey counts himself as one of the more fortunate. At least he was given the chance to see what the sky looked like at different points in the day, the words on books so old they might as well be ancient tomes, the color of soft serve vanilla ice cream.

Of course, things like this take getting used to. With his circadian rhythm thrown off kilter, he needs coded alarms to tell him what hour it is. Needs a semblance of order and familiarity that is a jarring contrast for one who lived most of their life with spontaneity.

His friends are a massive help, though. Dezel, being blind himself, walks Sorey through the process. Gives him tips to be more independent and less of a liability.

Not that he is one, of course. His friends are very adamant on driving that point home.

It's just... for his own sake. To feel less like one.

The transitionary process is a fun one. A welcoming challenge so to speak. Learning a new way to read, learning to navigate the world with nothing but a stick and his remaining four senses.

It's kind of like gaining a newfound super power. He can smell sweets so much better now and he's definitely a lot less slower with his reaction time when handling hot objects.

(At least, ones that aren't immediately snatched out of his reach by the nearest friend.)

Besides, as long as he can perceive a sliver of light and the warmth of the sun against his skin, not being able to see isn't an overwhelming loss.

And, if he really squints, he can see little splotches of color in his left eye. So it really isn't all that horrible.

The implications of the whole situation only hits him when his brain decides to play little tricks on him. When the sensory feedback becomes all too real that his brain feels an overwhelming, _aching_ need to fill in the gaps.

...The scent of his shampoo is gentle. He was never one to wear cologne and, honestly? He doesn't need to. It's impossible, and Sorey has been teased about it several times, but he smells like the air after a rainy day.

He's sitting there, blocking the sunlight from hitting Sorey's face out of habit. His breathing is steady, his movements limited to the flipping of pages. He's probably in his thinker's pose, eyes narrowed and biting his lip until the skin is close to breaking blood.

Sorey's fingers twitch off the line he was reading and he has to pull the blankets closer around his frame.

The light would be hitting his hair perfectly... just enough to make it glow.

It's only been a few months, but Sorey can't help but wonder. Is his hair still the same? And what about his eyes? Or the shape of his jaw?

He's close enough to reach out and touch, if Sorey wanted to. The warmth he feels tells him that much. He licks his lips, partially from how chapped they are, partially as a distraction from how his heart clenches.

It's no use thinking about these things now, no matter how curious he may be. But... He wants to.

He wants to know.

He wants to remember.

"Mikleo."

The name escapes from his lips in a breathless whisper.

There's a slight shift and a soft thud, telling Sorey that he has his friend's undivided attention, whether he means to or not.

"Sorey."

He's come closer, Sorey realizes once he pushes past the initial embarrassment. His scent has a hint of the dessert they had earlier and it makes Sorey's mouth go dry. He really didn't mean to say anything aloud. After all, he makes Mikleo worry about him enough as it is.

He wants to say that it's nothing. He really does. But his mouth betrays him again.

"I want to see you."

There's a light puff of air that washes over his face and Sorey can't quite stop the corners of his lips from twitching in response. Mikleo is probably wearing that face. The one that's part amusement and part concern.

"Sorey, I hate to break it to you, but you can't really see anything right now."

He can't help but pout. "You know what I mean."

The shadow in front of him recedes and Sorey feels the strongest urge to reach out and tug it back.

"Yeah, but I don't see why." A pause. Mikleo is considering something. "Did something happen?"

Sorey stiffens at the question and immediately drops his face to where his knees are. "Nothing happened." He tries his best not to pout, but it's not exactly working. "I just wanna see."

After a pause, he adds with a mumble, "You don't have to if you think it's weird."

The shadow is back. An exasperated laugh tickles Sorey's hair. Makes his spine tingle.

"It's weird alright. But honestly? It's nothing out of the ordinary."

"Hey." Sorey says without any bite.

At any rate, his friend's words are about as close as they'll ever be to an invitation. He sets aside his book and there's a brief moment where he considers marking where he left off, but he dismisses it.

He'll probably regret it later but... Right now? This is more important.

Sorey shifts to a more comfortable position and tentatively reaches out, suppressing a shiver as he feels his blankets slip off his shoulders. He has to fight back a triumphant cry when his fingers finds the material of Mikleo's sleeve on the first try.

It's a futile move though. It's written all over his face, judging by the small chuckle Mikleo gives him.

"Do you need help?"

Sorey makes another face. If his dear friend can stop with the teasing, that would be great. "No, but maybe-"

He shifts over a bit and pats the space beside him, hoping that it would be enough room for Mikleo to sit beside him. "Here."

Wordlessly, his friend settles down on the couch beside him.

Maybe this wasn't a great idea after all. Sorey is all too aware of the parts of Mikleo's leg that brush his own. The steady breath that touches his face in waves, almost like a caress.

Sorey takes in a quick breath of his own and lets it out slowly. No, it's too late to back out now.

He slowly makes his way up Mikleo's arm, pausing ever so briefly to appreciate the muscles he finds along the way. A smile tugs at Sorey's lips when he reaches Mikleo's shoulder. Somehow, even with all that added mass, he's still as boney as ever.

"My face is up here, you know."

Sorey is severely tempted to skip straight to his friend's mouth just to feel the smile that he knows is there. Instead, he lets his fingers dip down to ghost against Mikleo's clavicle.

He mentally rewards himself for his self restraint.

"I know."

There's a sharp intake of breath.

"Idiot."

Sorey just hums in response, feeling all too warm and tingly to come up with a proper response. He trails his fingers up his friend's neck, idly rubbing his thumb against a patch of skin. Mikleo's skin is so soft. And warm. Or maybe the warmth was from his own skin?

He feels a slight shift and a corresponding sound that tells him that Mikleo just swallowed. The voice that comes out sounds almost strangled.

"Sorey."

He's about to run his fingers through the hairs at the nape of Mikleo's neck, but something in his friend's voice just now sounds off.

"Sorry. Too much?"

A slight shake of the head. "No. I." A soft cough. "Seriously though. My face is up here."

"I know."

Sorey gently- _finally_ \- touches Mikleo's hair and he almost gasps at how soft it is. How fluffy the locks feel as he makes passes with his fingers. Wait-

"Did your hair grow longer?"

"I-" The question startles Mikleo enough that he has to stop and actually consider his response. "I haven't really noticed, actually."

Sorey lets his fingers run through the entire length and nods to himself. "It's definitely longer. I thought something was off."

"Is- Is it bad?"

"Huh?" Sorey can't quite help but frown at that. Did he say something wrong? Mikleo's voice sounds off again. "No, not at all. It just explains why your hair tickles my face differently."

"Oh."

Mikleo's voice is breathless with relief, but Sorey still feels the need to lighten up the mood.

"Hey, are the tips of your hair still blue?" He tries to hold back a smile, but it's hard to do when Mikleo is sputtering like that.

"Wh-what? No! The dye washed out weeks ago."

"Aw, that's too bad. I really liked it."

Sorey suddenly feels the strands of hair shift in his fingers. Mikleo must have turned his neck. He bites back a grin. Ah, someone is embarrassed.

"I'm not doing it again, if that's what you're trying to get at. I didn't even want to the first time around. I just went along with it because of Lailah."

"She does have a way of persuading people." Sorey murmurs as he thumbs Mikleo's jawline. "It looked good though."

"It's messy."

Sorey suddenly finds his thumb resting against Mikleo's chin. Mikleo must have turned his head back. Sorey's thumb twitches. The slightest shift and-

No. He can wait. There's no rush. Finals are over and they don't have anywhere to be right now. He can enjoy this.

"It couldn't have been that bad, right?" Sorey lets his fingers travel up the side of his friend's head, nothing but a gentle pass over his hair. "I mean, doesn't Lailah teach at a hair school?"

"It was messy." Mikleo repeats with emphasis.

"It looked nice," Sorey retorts as he twirls a lock around his finger. A voice in the back of his head tells him that friends don't exactly touch each other like this, but he brushes it aside. "Lailah chose a good color." He feels for the fringe of Mikleo's bangs. "Oh! Your hair still does the fwippy thing."

Mikleo snorts through his nose. "Really? 'Fwippy'? That's the best you can come up with?"

Sorey ignores the subtle jibe. "How do you even get it to do this? It can't be gel or hair spray. Your hair doesn't feel weird."

"It's magic." His retort lacks any bite. Mikleo is starting to get restless, if the rusting of clothes is anything to go by. "Anyway, what's with you and my hair?"

Apparently, Sorey has no filter today because the words just spring from his lips unbidden.

"It's pretty."

He can actually hear Mikleo blink.

"Huh?"

"I-It's nice to look at, okay?" Sorey has to bite down on his tongue to stop the incoherent jumble of sappy words that's waiting to tumble out.

There's a beat of silence before Mikleo replies. "You- You can't see right now, Sorey."

Sorey bites down on his tongue harder. When he feels like he has a proper grip over it, he mumbles, "I know. But I can't say 'was' because I know it still is."

The sound Mikleo makes is actually pretty cute and he really wishes he could see the expression that went along with it.

"You're ridiculous."

Sorey hums softly as he drops his fingers from his friend's bangs. "I'm going to touch your face now."

A huff. "You don't have to announce it, Sorey. Just do it."

His words come across as a touch exasperated, but something in Mikleo's posture changes. It's hard to tell, but it's there.

"Mikleo, if this is making you uncomfortable in any way, just tell me."

His friend's posture changes again, but this time, it's not nearly as tense. "You're fine, Sorey. Don't worry. It's just." A slow inhale, followed by an unsteady exhale. "Different."

"Oh." Sorey's voice comes out a bit breathless and he's not sure why. "Is that bad?"

There's a subtle shift that nearly has Sorey choking on air. Instead of just hovering over his hair, his hand is cupping the side of Mikleo's head.

"Not at all."

Suddenly, Sorey is all too aware of everything that is Mikleo. The strands of hair that tickle the palm of his hand, the puffs of air that warms his very core... Every single part of him that overlaps with the person in front of him. His skin tingles and his spine is so overstimulated he wants to curl in on himself. He almost wants to pull away and call it a day but-

"Sorey?" There's a gentle brush of fingers on his knee that has him shivering. "You okay?"

There are words rattling around his head, sitting on the tip of his tongue, swelling up in his chest. Aching, crying out for release. He doesn't understand why, but in that moment, they almost consume him. Sorey breathes in, out, in.

Then swallows the words back down.

"Yeah."

He trails the back of his fingers against Mikleo's temple, then thumbs the apple of his friend's cheek. They're there, but they're not sharp. Sorey bites back a smile. Someone still has some baby fat left.

"What?" Mikleo's voice is a tad sharp.

Whoops. He must have shown too much on his face.

"Nothing. Your cheeks are cute."

Mikleo's fingers retract from his knee to somewhere else. He's probably crossing his arms right now. His voice implies it. "That's not exactly a compliment."

"Oh, come on." Sorey doesn't bother to hide his grin this time around. "It totally is!"

"Yeah, if you're a-" Sorey hears Mikleo breathing catch when his fingertips cup his jaw and rest against his ear. "If you're a girl..."

"To be fair, you're cuter than a lot of people, not just girls." Sorey brushes his thumb against the corner Mikleo's eye. Wow. The skin is pretty warm here.

"That's not exactly a compliment, either!" Judging from all the jerky movements, it seems like he's debating between swatting Sorey's hand away and just suffering through it.

Sorey's fingers twitch. He wants to know if Mikleo's pouting, but he opts to caress the silky skin of his friend's eyelid instead.

"It's true though."

Sorey has to lift his thumb away when he feels Mikleo's posture slouch forward, least he poke out an eyeball. Ah, his eyebrow is fluffy too.

A sigh. "You say the strangest things sometimes, Sorey."

"Only because it's true."

Sorey's thumb drifts down to Mikleo's eyelashes. They're thick and actually kind of long. It tickles the pad of his thumb. He takes a moment to file away the sensation before sweeping his thumb down to caresses the skin under his friend's eye.

And just like that, the words are reverberating in his skull again.

He can lean in and- do something. Sorey isn't quite sure what. Well, he has an inclination but he really doesn't want to go there. Not because he doesn't _want_ to, not exactly, but because there are things going on in his stomach right now that are driving him crazy from just _thinking_ about it.

Instead, he traces the bridge of Mikleo's nose. Not exactly the best distraction, but at least it puts him back on track.

Like the rest of his skin, Mikleo's nose is soft and not at all oily. It's thin and almost delicate in the way it curves up at the end. Huh. There's a slight bump that indicates the presence of a Roman nose. One wouldn't be able to tell just by looking.

When he's satisfied with the information he gleaned from touching Mikleo's nose, Sorey switches back to stroking his friend's cheek with his thumb. For a little bit, at least. He has to take a mental break; get his bearings together for what he's about to do next.

Sorey slowly, lightly drags his fingers down Mikleo's cheek. His heart hammers in his chest, pounds in his ears. Briefly, he wonders if his friend can hear it. After all, Mikleo's breathing has gotten weird again. Or maybe it's his own?

When he traces the outline of his friend's lips, he catches him on an exhale. It flutters against his fingers and Sorey has to will them not to tremble.

...His lips aren't exactly full, but they're not razor thin either. It's kind of like a happy medium. Top lip slopes up, bottom curves down. The shape is defined and sharp, but he can't tell what it is exactly. They're soft and warm, like the rest of him, and there's a slight drag when Sorey's fingers try to slide over them. Judging by the wax, it's probably because Mikleo actually bothers to use chapstick.

He lets out a breath he doesn't even know he's holding in, then presses his thumb against his friend's lips in full, his index finger staying Mikleo's chin. Not too hard, but definitely enough to feel that it's there.

"Sorey..."

His name warm against the pad of his thumb.

The words are roaring in his ears now, churning his stomach. He valiantly fights against what-if's and impulses, and he's well aware that it's all written on his face. But honestly?

He can't bring himself to care.

"Thank you."

He doesn't lean in, no matter how much his- well, _everything_ is screaming at him to. Instead, he slides his thumb so that it rests at the corner of Mikleo's mouth.

For a moment, they just sit there, breathing in each other's air.

"You-" Mikleo's voice sounds rough and unsteady. "You ready to tell me what all this is about?"

A laugh escapes him before he can fully register it. Then again, if he's being honest, this turn of events isn't all that surprising.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

Reluctantly, Sorey drops his hand from Mikleo's face, but compromises with himself by resting it on his friend's shoulder.

"I didn't want to forget." His admission is quiet, even to his own ears.

He feels a soft punch to his shoulder and Mikleo's voice is just as fond, if not a bit exasperated. "Idiot. Did you forget about the surgery already?"

There's a moment of awkward silence and Sorey _really_ wants to hide his face in a pillow. The only problem with that is he doesn't exactly know where said pillow is, and trying to grope around for one is counterintuitive.

"You did." Sorey is always one to appreciate Mikleo's laugh, but now isn't one of those times. "You _actually_ did."

He presses his head into his friend's chest. "Shut up."

The way Mikleo's fingers run through Sorey's hair is nice. So is the way his voice rumbles in his chest when he speaks.

"You're such a worry wort. Your eyes are curable. The surgery is going to work. We spent a lot of time looking for the surgeon, you know."

Sorey wants to find Mikleo's hand and interlace their fingers together, but he doesn't. Instead, he picks at the front of his friend's sweater. "I know."

A laugh tickles his hair, makes his body shake. "I can't believe you actually forgot. What gives?"

Sorey would rather eat a page from the _Celestial Record_ than tell Mikleo the truth. It'll probably be in vain though, and a wasted sacrifice. Mikleo always had an uncanny tendency to see right through him.

Still, he wants to keep this a secret, even if it's for a little while. So he resorts to what he almost always does in situations like this.

Tickle fight.

Mikleo gasps out in surprise and tries his best to squirm away. It's a difficult feat, given that they're on the couch and well, Sorey can't _see_. It's a safety hazard to say the least, which is why they don't do this anymore, but to hear Mikleo's peals of laughter grace his ears? It's entirely worth it.

Sorey, given his previous position, easily finds Mikleo's weak points. He skims his fingers up his friend's sides, wiggles them against his ribs, pokes them at his stomach.

His victory doesn't last for long, though.

The element of surprise wears off all too soon and Sorey finds _himself_ wiggling and squirming as Mikleo easily finds all the places that leaves him a breathless, laughing mess.

Somehow, amidst their little scuffle, Sorey ends up between Mikleo's legs, with Mikleo himself on his back. He isn't sure, but guessing from the soft pants and the breathless laughter, he's hovering somewhere above his friend's face. Sorey licks his lips nervously.

He can say it now, if he wanted to. Actually, he could have said it many times in the past. During missed opportunities where the nerves clogged up his throat, turned his tongue into dead weight in his mouth.

He can say it now, but....

"Mikleo?"

Even to his own ears, his voice sounds like it's wavering and close to breaking. He wants to say it's from the tickling, but he knows that would just be a lie.

"Yes?"

Mikleo's voice is soft, gentle, inviting. It does funny things to Sorey's bodily functions. He swallows hard and forces out the words before he can second guess himself.

"Will you be there after the surgery is done?"

The moment the question leaves his mouth, Sorey knows it's a pretty dumb one.

A quiet laugh. Ah, he thought it was silly, too. "If the doctor allows it, I'll stay with you every step of the way, Sorey."

Sorey licks his lips again and tries to swallow back the anxiety. "I- I have something to tell you. After the surgery."

There's a moment of silence before Mikleo replies. He sounds a bit apprehensive. "Why can't you tell me now?"

Sorey allows a moment of dramatic pause before smiling at his best friend and initiating round two of their tickle battle.

(It's selfish, he knows. Nothing is stopping him from saying it now, but more than anything...

He wants to see the look on his face when he does.)

**Author's Note:**

> Slight confession to make:
> 
> Never watched the anime, never played the game (at least not yet), and only read up to vol 3 of the manga. So I'm only going off the skits and the one and a half drama CDs I've listened to. Sorry if the characters are a bit off. ^^""
> 
> Still, thank you for reading!


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